Good for Health AND Good for (Autism) Education
The only officially recognized replica of Shotaro Kaneda’s motorcycle from Katsuhiro Otomo‘s Akira manga and film is currently traveling across Japan. Shinji Tejima from the Showa Studio automobile
repair shop spent seven years and approximately 10 million yen (about
US$121,400) to build the motorcycle, and he is riding it across Japan to
raise money for the children’s autism support group Bokura Company.
Tejima started his journey in Fukuoka where he lives and is traveling
south and has stopped in various cities such as Osaka, Nagoya, and on
Sh?do Island.Tejima will also display the motorcycle at the “Katsuhiro Otomo GENGA Exhibition” in Tokyo, which is being held
from April 9 to May 30. Visitors to the exhibition will be able have
their picture taken while sitting on the bike. The exhibition itself is
being held to raise money to support the reconstruction efforts in the
Tohoku region after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
I know I should be happy that this is for a good cause, but really, I’m posting it because watching Kaneda’s bike drive off in real life is one of the sexiest damn things I’ve ever seen. ANN has a few more videos here if you feel the same.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.